luthier school anyone?

  • Thread starter Thread starter jrhoden
  • Start date Start date

Have you been to luthier school?

  • Yes

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • No

    Votes: 14 100.0%
  • Total voters
    14
jrhoden

jrhoden

...And Justice For All
anyone here go to luthier school or learn on their own?

im considering going to school for it and would love to hear some opinions.
 
I studied instrument making as part of my university degree and had previously trained as a cabinet maker.

There aren't too many options for those wanting to study instrument making and those that do exist are of mixed value, some are great some are lousy. There really is no substitute for getting experience on the job. You can do that by taking any job that gives you experience at anything guitar related whether it be as a cabinet maker or sweeping floors in a music store. The skills you will need to make a go of instrument making are good tool and machine skills, you can only learn those with time and while working. A sound understanding of music both the business and the science, a lot of that you can get from studying at a university. The other is experience and reputation, that only comes from being completely dedicated to the task and responding to EVERY demand your customers place on you.

Don't forget there are more unemployed luthiers than maybe there are rock stars and there is isn't a lot of money in it until you get real lucky and real good. Even then it requires a good business sense and the ability to adapt.

Good luck.
 
the Craft has been in our family for several generations, I learned from uncles and grandparents.
 
Seems like another one of the many fields related to music that is best left a hobby, but I guess I won't tell you not to follow your dreams.
 
I was lucky enough to find a Master Luthier close to us. He does great work, and he is in such high demand that he does the work for about 7 different stores in the area. Every week, he does the rounds of these shops, collects the guitars, and then brings them back the next week. He never really has any lulls in his work. Anyways, he has a diploma in instrument building, has been doing it for over 30 years, and I would trust this guy with pretty well anything. I asked him if he needed an apprentice, and he just shuddered....
 
Well, I said no, but I kind of grew up in one. I mean, I was the only student, but still.

On the whole, if you can't have the fortune (good or bad, you decide - I love my job, but I'll always be poor) to be born into the family of a luthier, I think they are a pretty good idea, but do not for one second imagine that you will come out a fully qualified repair person or builder. The school can give you some basic skills, and that is great, but it's not enough. For the last 25 years or so, we have hired all but one of our employees from the Minnesota State College Red Wing Tech Instrument Repair school. After we get them, it takes about 5 years for them to be competent, and at least 10 for them to be first rate. A few of them, who were exceptionally talented, cut that 10 years down to 7-8, but they are the exception.

The way I see it, it take about 100 fret dresses before you are reliable on that one, and doing a professional setup for someone else is hard too. The real thing, though, is the structural repair jobs. Gluing and cleating top cracks is pretty easy, but getting the back on a 20's or 30's Gibson mandolin that has sprung? (The backs shrink, and the sides kind of spring outwards, so nothing fits anymore.) Or getting a perfect fit and grain match on a patch in a neck? That takes a lot of practice. And then, for the truly master level of repair, you do that kind of stuff on really valuable vintage guitars, which means you have to do all that stuff with hide glue. Gluing up a neck reset with Tightbond isn't that hard. Gluing up a Neck reset with hide glue is a whole other thing. And regluing that back with hide glue? You don't even want to think about it until you've been doing this shit for 15 years or more.

So if this is something you really want to do for the rest of your life, then absolutely go to a school. Hell, if you just want to build an instrument for fun, go to one of the schools. They do that too. Just don't expect to come out of one of them an expert.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Have not gone to school, and it shows...I take too much time in repairs.

BUT, I have done quite a bit of serious work on guitars, I had a store for a while, and my own.

What helped me, was a background in woods, and being a lifelong machinist.
The combination has led me to tackle projects and repairs that others wouldn't touch. Fortunately, no disasters (returns) yet, over twenty years. Not to say I haven't made some boneheaded mistakes a luthier would not have made, because a luthier is trained, and I am strictly home schooled.

If I could find the time I would get the education. Too busy with work, and
life, to do it, though. I rapidly decline any work I'm not comfortable with, such as a kid with a cheap guitar with a twisted neck. 350, for starters. Hope for 500 by the time it's through. Better to buy another neck, or guitar...

I recommend anyone serious about it to go to school. There is no way I can impart all the various things I've run into, and solved in my own way, to make someone else lucrative. What works, works for me and my customers. But I can't possibly pass on a lifetime of experience in light engineering in the materials of both woods and metals, and thinking problems through...to make it worth it to anyone else. Unless they want to pay for my retirement, of course!
 
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